Case Solved! Lionel’s Death Not in Vain!

I am pleased to announce to you all the poor Lionel’s death was not in vain! I have discovered that the cause of Lionel’s death was surprisingly simple: it was a gas leak by the location in the living room that caused the cat to accidentally suffocate on carbon monoxide. I found the cause of death out with the discovery of a mousehole, in which was contained a mouse that suffered the same fate and the pipings of an old gas stove (the 1930’s I luckily was able to recognize) that was the culprit. Simple enough, non? And worth the investigation all the same.

Ah, but there is more intrigue to the story. For the break in the gas pipe routed through the living room was connected to a stove in the old fashioned servant’s quarter of the house that in theory hadn’t been used in years because servants no longer live in the house and all cooking was to take place upstairs in the modern renovated kitchen. Moreover the break in the piping was small enough that in order for the monoxide leak to do its damage to the cat it would need to have been running hours on end at night, otherwise the gas would have dissipated. So who was running the stove at night in a portion of the house which was unconventional and almost certainly deliberate? What was this person hiding?

And then upon further investigation it was revealed that the valet Arthur Lincoln of the staff was not who he appeared to be; for in the bottom basement of the house he was using the old-fashioned downstairs stove to develop an illegal drug substance called crack cocaine in industrial qualities where he would never be suspected – for no one would naturally fathom that the Madame Widdecombe was harboring a drug peddler! Indeed he created his name as an alias; his real name is Jack Mason, and he is a known criminal with a record. Upon this revelation he fled; but the police were appropriately contacted and the man was shortly arrested!

I haven’t had this much of a rush of intrigue in a long time! C’est magnifique!